The Museum of Ontario Archaeology is celebrating First Nations culture during Doors Open London this weekend

Griffin Sands (left) and Mason Sands stand in First Nations regalia by the replica longhouse at the Museum of Ontario Archaeology. The MOA’s annual celebration of indigenous art, music, and culture takes place during Doors Open London this weekend. CHRIS MONTANINI\LONDONER\POSTMEDIA NETWORK

The Museum of Ontario Archaeology’s annual Harvest Festival will explore the agricultural methods of First Nations people on what’s now known as the Lawson Site, where acres of corn, beans, and squash sustained a thriving community well before the area was settled by Europeans.

“Over the past year a lot of focus has been on that colonial aspect of 150 and Canada becoming Canada in 1867, but we really tried to put the focus on the fact that people were here beforehand — vibrant cultures living and interacting with one another long before Canada was a country,” said Rhonda Bathurst, the museum’s executive director.

A new exhibit featuring artifacts such as grinding stones and pottery will shed some light on early agricultural practices in this part of southwestern Ontario. It will pair nicely at the two-day festival Sept. 16-17 with an indigenous cooking demonstration by dietitian Teri Morrow, a member of Six Nations of the Grand River Territory, who will be making healthy recipes using traditional ingredients.

Maize, beans, and squash, characterized collectively by the Iroquois as the Three Sisters, will be staples. Originally domesticated in Central America several thousand years ago, Bathurst explained the Three Sisters would have made their way north about 1,500 years ago before becoming increasingly important to First Nations communities and their diets around 1,000 years ago.

“Maize and beans eaten together … provide all the amino acids you require for life,” Bathurst said. “So even if you don’t have a lot of meat, you can subsist on just beans and maize. In really interesting was they (First Nations communities) learned how to process these things too. People weren’t just subsisting hand and mouth. This is a cuisine people had.”

First Nations cuisine is experiencing a resurgence. As an example, Bathurst points to sioux-chef.com, a collection of chefs, ethnobotanists, food preservationists, adventurers, foragers, caterers, event planners, artists, musicians, food truckers, and food lovers that are, as they describe it on their website, “revitalizing Native American cuisine … and reclaiming an important culinary culture long buried and often inaccessible.”

But food is only one part of the MOA’s upcoming Harvest Festival. Other cultural touchstones will also be celebrated with a traditional gathering that includes dance, drumming, singing, medicine, lacrosse, storytelling, and art.

Some of that is contemporary too, according to organizer Gordon Sands, especially the singing and dancing being featured at the festival.

“Even though the singing and dancing isn’t native to these parts, it’s still a way for First Nations people to express themselves spiritually,” Sands said. “They regard those spiritual activities as healing in nature, something not easily explained. It’s sort of a way to give thanks because not all of our people are able to do this stuff, so we dance and sing for those who can’t. (It’s) a celebration of life, essentially, that’s what it is, through the expression of song and dance. That’s what the modern day dances have evolved into.”